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“Okay, I’ll try. I’m going to go visit my girlfriend. It feels weird for a fifty-year-old guy to use the wordgirlfriend.”
They laughed with Charlie, and some of them got up from the table to walk him to the door. When he was gone, Roberta herded them back into the dining room while Big Mike got more desserts out.
“I forgot to serve this pie. Banana cream rum pie.”
“Oh no, none for me,” Emily said. “I still have to eat dessert at my parents’ house tonight.”
Candy gladly took a piece at Joey’s bidding, Emily wondering if maybe he was trying to fatten up his wife.
“There’s more to the story,” Roberta said.
“Oh, Jesus Lord, don’t tell the boy that, Bertie,” Big Mike said, moaning.
Ignoring him, she gave him the chin flick, accompanied by gasps and more laughter.
“Do you want to hear it, Paul? Because it’s not pretty. I just want you to understand where Clare is coming from so you can safely ignore her digs at Emily. She’s acting out.”
“Our family treated Clare the same way,” Big Mike said, reaching over Candy’s shoulder to place a slice of pie in front of her.
“Mike, it wasn’t that bad. It’s just that they all knew Gramma and Grampa forced Charlie to marry her. They made a huge deal of it, counseling Charlie. The priest was at the house; you know the drill.”
“No, I really don’t,” Paul said. “I haven’t been to confession in about ten years.”
“You’re Catholic?” Emily asked. “Duh, I guess I should have asked.”
“Why? What are you?” Roberta asked.
“Porter? German? Guess,” she said, teasing. “Lutheran. And my mother claims to be descended from Martin Luther.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Roberta said, her nose in the air. “Anyway, in spite of what he just said, Charlie didn’t love Clare.”
“Mother Mary, Bertie, you’re going to hurt the boy,” Big Mike cried.
“Uncle Mike, it’s fine,” Paul said. “Remember, I lived there. I heard all the fights.”
“It’s not easy for a child to hear that his father didn’t love his mother,” Big Mike said.
“Paul, he honored her by caring for her and you boys,” Roberta continued, giving the stink eye to Big Mike. “Then during a fight they had at the beach, Charlie accused her of getting pregnant on purpose. They were in their bedroom, but you know how it was at the beach house, the walls are paper thin. Oh, the whole family was in on that. It was ugly. She told him she was on the pill and she wasn’t. She denied it at first, but later admitted it. I don’t think they ever recovered from that one. She’d had Oliver by then, and there was no way Charlie was leaving his boys.
“She got involved with Harry when you and Oliver were still home. She wouldn’t leave until you were out of the house though. Even then, Charlie was heartbroken. All those years together and he’d devoted himself to Clare and his boys, and for her to disrespect him like that was unthinkable.”
“Can I ask a question?” This was Emily, who’d had enough. She wondered how Paul was going to recover from this.
“Ask away.”
“Why are you telling him this stuff?”
“I already told you. Because she seems hell-bent on splitting you two up, and it’s because everyone can tell that Paul really loves you.”
“I really do,” he said, looking at Emily.
“I’m afraid that Clare might have enough venom against Charlie to try to break you two apart.”
“How?”
“Just by being unkind. If she whittles you down, tries to undermine your confidence, it might make it difficult for Paul to overcome that.”
“Did she try to whittle Bethany down?” Emily asked.
